Product Quality Engineer: Customer Qualification & Release

Vulcan Elements; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Vulcan Elements in Durham, NC, is seeking a Product Quality Engineer to own customer quality requirements from development samples through production qualification and release. You will translate drawings and specs into inspection and testing criteria, drive evidence for conformance, and coordinate across R&D, Manufacturing, Process Quality, and Commercial teams.

This role sits in the Commercial Development team and requires hands-on quality execution and communication with customers to ensure

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing, Chemical, Industrial Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in product quality, customer quality, manufacturing quality, supplier quality, or product/production engineering in a hardware manufacturing environment.
• Experience translating technical drawings, specifications, and customer requirements into inspection, test, and acceptance criteria.
• Experience supporting product qualification, validation, or production release, including review and disposition of inspection and test results.
• Demonstrated experience supporting prototype-to-production or new product introduction in a manufacturing environment.
• Experience investigating nonconforming product and executing containment, root cause analysis, corrective action, and documented closure.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing quality systems and standards such as ISO 9001, AS9100, or IATF 16949.
• Ability to work directly with engineering and production teams to resolve technical and quality issues on physical hardware.

Responsibilities

• Own customer qualification from requirements intake through customer approval, including PPAP, FAI, validation plans, customer-specific requirements, and supporting documentation.
• Build and maintain qualification plans for each customer part, including required samples, tests, documentation, owners, dependencies, approval gates, and objective evidence required for customer approval.
• Translate customer drawings, specifications, quality manuals, and supplier requirements into defined inspection, test, acceptance, documentation, and traceability requirements; ensure they are incorporated into applicable inspection methods, production control plans, and quality procedures.
• Establish and maintain the authoritative record of customer product quality requirements for each part number, including drawing and specification revisions, customer-specific requirements, special characteristics, inspection and testing requirements, approved deviations, qualification status, and required shipment documentation.
• Lead quality onboarding for new customers, including supplier portals, quality questionnaires, certifications, process-control evidence, and customer-specific documentation.

Skills

Product quality

Customer collaboration

Root cause analysis

Quality systems knowledge

Education

BS/MS in Mechanical/Materials/Manufacturing Engineering

Tools

GD&T

Minitab

Power BI

Excel

Job description

Vulcan Elements in Durham, NC, is seeking a Product Quality Engineer to own customer quality requirements from development samples through production qualification and release. You will translate drawings and specs into inspection and testing criteria, drive evidence for conformance, and coordinate across R&D, Manufacturing, Process Quality, and Commercial teams.

This role sits in the Commercial Development team and requires hands-on quality execution and communication with customers to ensure